Alonso wins 1st race of season at British GP

Spain's Ferrari Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso celebrates after winning the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit, Silverstone, England, Sunday July 10, 2011. Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso won his first race of the Formula One season at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, while Sebastian Vettel increased his lead in the championship by finishing second. (AP Photo/Tom Hevezi)
— AP

Spain's Ferrari Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso celebrates after winning the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit, Silverstone, England, Sunday July 10, 2011. Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso won his first race of the Formula One season at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, while Sebastian Vettel increased his lead in the championship by finishing second. (AP Photo/Tom Hevezi)
/ AP

SILVERSTONE, England 
Fernando Alonso produced Ferrari's first victory of the Formula One season at the British Grand Prix on Sunday after championship leader Sebastian Vettel's hopes were thwarted by a pit-stop blunder.

Vettel was overtaken in the Silverstone pits by Alonso just after the halfway point when the Red Bull driver's mechanics struggled to attach a wheel.

"I saw the problem in the pit stop with Sebastian and we were in the lead at that moment, but who knows what might have happened after that," Alonso said. "I knew it was a race to be calm, make no mistakes, to not be off the track, and with that I knew the car had enough for victory and it came."

A 27th career victory for Alonso lifted the two-time world champion to third in the standings behind the Red Bull duo of Vettel and Mark Webber.

"Today it is 60 years since Ferrari won its first Grand Prix in Formula One," Alonso said. "And today we won on the same circuit with the same passion."

Vettel didn't linger on the pit-spot issue, saying that "Ferrari beat us fair and square."

"There were little mistakes here and there," said the German, who has won six of the opening nine races. "You can't get it right all the time, but credit to Ferrari - they have been getting stronger and improving their car, so it shows we need to keep pushing hard."

There was controversy on the final lap as Vettel increased his lead in the drivers' championship to 80 points over Webber, who had started from the pole position.

Webber had been ordered by the team to maintain third place and halt his pursuit of Vettel, who had jumped ahead of the Australian when they started from the front row.

Webber said he was "not fine" with the situation, disclosing that he had ignored "probably four or five" orders not to pass his teammate.

"Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best," Webber said. "I wasn't going to crash with anyone. I try to do my best with the amount of one way conversation I was having - I was trying to do my best to pass the guy in front."

Red Bull's bosses, though, stressed that they were trying to secure the maximum points possible for the team, which has a 110-point lead over McLaren in the constructors' championship.

"I can understand Mark's frustrations but we cannot give away a load of points," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. "We did not want to see our drivers in the fence at some time in the last two laps, which is how it would have ended up.

"Mark is not out of the championship race but we could not afford to risk losing points. Mark should be fine with that, he is a team player. Second and third is a very strong result."

Having qualified a season-worst 10th, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton began his surge from the start and edged Felipe Massa to finish fourth after going wheel-to-wheel with the Ferrari driver on the final lap.